Advantages

Disadvantages

a good game

This game brings back the great memories of the 1990's. I played this game all the time when I was a kid, and it is still good today. It's a typical side-scrolling beat-em-up game, but it is one of the best.

To start, you get to pick one of four characters; Max, Axel, Blaze, and Skate. Each character has their strengths and weaknesses, and the game gives them a star rating based on different categories to let you know how the character will perform.

After character selection, you are ready to start stage 1. In this game, most stages have 3 screens that you have to get through until you meet the final boss. The gameplay is pretty easy. The A button does a special move, the B button punches and the C button does jump moves. You can also do combos, grapples, and other aerial moves. They aren't hard to figure out, so by the 5th enemy, you should have everything down. There are objects to find like turkeys and apple looking things to gain health, as well as weapons to help you beat the enemies.

There are 8 stages to this game, and each one gets more difficult. You can change the difficulty settings in the options screen, and they will give the enemies more or less strength, depening on which you choose.

There is a 2 player mode so that 2 players can enjoy the game at the same time. This makes the game fun and a little bit easier.

Overall, this is a fun game, and I think you should give it a play!

Comments

Advantages

Disadvantages

A great trip down memory lane for us original megadrive users

Early inthe 90's the streets of rage trilogy kicked off with streets of rage then followed that up swiftly with streets of rage 2 (known as bare knuckle 2 in japan) The game consists of four availible players two of which were new from the first game Max thunder a wrestler and Eddie "skate" hunter (sammy in japan) which is the brother of adam a cop from the first game. These two newbies team up with the two other originals Axel and Blaze.

The games itself is your typical left to right sega game that pits you agains loads of street thugs fat baseball players the odd flying maniac and a few kung fu experts and the odd annoying women with an electric whip and filling them in sums up the basics of the game.

Its amusing that many of the people you fight have the same name as each other they look the same and dress the same and there is roughly only 15 opponants (if that) that vary. The people you fight have a health bar in this game unlike the first where that was reserved just for the first and its weapons have changed slightly such as no more baseball bat and now each character has its own "sepcial" move as opposed to the police car from the first.

The typical funky soundtrack is there while you walk about breaking heads and its nice to see women get equal rights to a arse kicking too as they are some of the more annoying opponents with their hig heel jumping kicks.

These are the eight rounds you work your way through to get to fight Mr x at the end where the only ending is the good one where you save adam and escape the island you are on.

I find it amusing how now every game is scrutinised for age restrictions but here we have a prime example of a game that was sold to young kids where the object is to beat up everyone even women with knifes and poles and no one cared.

Overall i think this was a good upgrade from the first and in some respect better than the 3rd in the trilogy. I even remember that there is a extra life in the bottom left corner of the first level and same again when you exit the truck later on.............. I played this game nearly 20yrs ago.... how sad is that.

I have used this review in the xbox section as I have the game currently on the megadrive collection although it is still exactly the same as when I owned this on the megadrive in the early 90's

Comments

Advantages

Disadvantages

One of the MD's better beat em ups

Back in the 90s, it seemed that pretty much every arcade game you encountered was either a 2D side-scrolling beat em up, or an R-Type style shoot em up; some brilliant, others awful. Happily, Streets of Rage 2 on the Sega Megadrive falls is an example of a good beat em up and is still a lot of fun to play today.

Games back then didn't really need plots, although Streets of Rage does have one of sorts. Essentially, you get to choose from a roster of 4 characters, each with their own reasons for getting involved and take on the evil Mr X (returning from the original Street of Rage). Of course, that's easier said than done since Mr X has the ability to employ lots of lots of hired muscle that you must fight your way through before you finally reach him.

However you dress it up, though, this is a typical 90s 2D brawler. You move your character along from left to right, beating up gangs of enemies until they are dead before moving along the screen to do the same again. Once you reach the end of the level, a tougher Boss character stands between you and access to the next level where you do the same thing again, but with bigger, tougher opponents. Thankfully, whilst the odds might be stacked against you, some help is at hand. You can smash some various items of scenery to reveal food (to restore some health) or weapons.

The gameplay might not be terribly innovative, but it's a lot of fun. Beating people up (in computer games at least; I wouldn't advise it in real life!) is always satisfying and good for a laugh. It's also rather cathartic: if I've had a tough day in work, there's nothing better that booting up Streets of Rage 2 and taking out my frustration on a few of Mr X's minions. The gameplay might be basic, but it's great fun and this is a title I return to time and time again, no matter how many times I've beaten it.

Obviously, the graphics now look a little dated, but if you make allowances for the passage of time they still look pretty good. Sprites are big and bold and the limited hardware of the Megadrive copes with them well, with hardly any noticeable slowdown, even when there are multiple enemies on screen at once. Backgrounds are also nicely detailed, with each level set against a different backdrop to add some variety and also contribute to a feeling of progression and achievement.

Aurally, things have not held up quite so well. Although there are several different pieces of music throughout the game (a different tune for each level, for example) most are rather short and loop endlessly so that they soon start to grate on your ears. In fairness, some work reasonably OK and add a bit of tension to the atmosphere, but overall I tend to find them a little repetitive and annoying. Sound effects, meanwhile, are your bog standard "bash" noises - nothing spectacular, but they do their job.

Controls have been implemented very well, complementing the relatively straightforward gameplay. This is not your modern day beat em up where you need to remember 600 different combinations of buttons just to execute a successful punch or kick. You only need to remember a few basic buttons to control movement and combat, as well as one to activate your particular character's special move. Whilst the controls are easy to remember, they are also highly effective and can be used to your advantage. Different combinations of moves will give you more points or drain more of your opponent's energy, so whilst on the face of it combat is simple, you need to learn how to use your character properly, rather than relying on simple button bashing.

Streets of Rage 2 can be quite tough. This is old school gaming when you actually needed skill to play a game and weren't awarded an "achievement" just for managing to load the game up! Early levels lull you into a false sense of security and you'll find yourself breezing through them, the same basic fighting technique will easily see you through the first few levels. You'd be better off using these levels to hone your skills, though, and try different combinations of attacks because as you progress things get a lot tougher. Enemies get smarter and become more aggressive so you will have to adapt your fighting style to avoid their attacks and use your full repertoire of moves to get through their defences. They also stop doing the dumb Hollywood henchman thing of attacking in ones or twos and begin to gang up on you, often attacking you from both in front and behind. This means you have to learn to use the full gaming area to your advantage, moving up and down or left and right to try and outflank your opponent and get a tactical advantage. This gives Streets of Rage an additional depth that belies its apparent simplicity.

As with all 90s games, the toughness is increased on the Megadrive because there is no facility to save progress. There's no built in Save facility or password system to start from a particular level and once you lose all your three lives, it's game over and the next game starts all the way back at the beginning with no option to continue from where you left off. In truth, there are not actually that many levels (once you're good enough, you can probably get through the whole thing in around an hour or so), but the tough gameplay means it will offer a real challenge to all but the best gamers.

The thing is, though, it never feels like this is an unfair game because it's so much fun to play. Even when you lose all your lives at a fairly advanced stage, there is always that temptation to hit the Start button again and have another bash (literally!). Even when you've finally beaten the game, there's the challenge of going back and beating it again with one of the other characters. Although the basic gameplay is the same whichever fighter you choose, the four characters do have different strengths, weaknesses and abilities so this adds some longevity since tactics that work with one character won't necessarily be as effective for a different one.

Of course, there isn't a lot of variety and each level does boil down to little more than moving from left to right and beating up bad guys until there's no-one else to beat up. Essentially, if you don't like beat em ups, or get bored on level 1, then the game isn't going to get any better for you. If you do like it... well, let me put it this way: I first played Streets of Rage 2 around 20 years ago, and I'm still playing it now.

I'm a bit of a purist, so prefer this Megadrive incarnation of the game, which can be picked up for around £8 second hand. If you don't own Sega's machine and can't figure out MAME, then I believe it's also available on the X-Box as a digital download. If you're a fan of old style 2D beat em ups, I can recommend it in whatever format is best for you, because it's a lot of fun.